I Heart Letterpress

I started my quest for the perfect invitation before we had a wedding date, color selection and engagement ring.

Yes, I was that girl who might have taken her "pre-engagement wedding planning" a bit too far.

But it was my love for all things related to writing (I even get jazzed over a new set of fun Post-Its) and working with paper vendors and printers in my last position, that contributed to me speeding up my wedding paper-goods search.

And I have to be honest, I am happy I did!

I could not believe the price for the coveted letterpress. When I lived in budget fantasy land, $500 for 100 invitations... just invitations, no reply card, seemed reasonable! And sure, for letterpress it is but it was never going to happen with our budget.

Slightly disappointed, I decided to start saving any and every invitation I saw online to my favorites.

When we got engaged, decided on a theme, settled on our colors and I started editing down my list, but not before I made sure our colors were not available in that style.

My mission went from loving letterpress to achieve an expensive look at a discount price.

I immediately ruled out printing our own and DIYing the invites. I don't have the patience or skill and I'm okay with that!

And the best way to get the Mister's input is to make an inspiration board and have him select what he likes.

So here is our current inspiration board...

source: 1- www.weddingpaperdivas.com , 2- www.hellolucky.com , 3, 4- www.weddingpaperdivas.com , 5- www.myjeanm.com , 6 - www.getmarried.com and 7 - www.myjeanm.com

I have been pretty fond of numbers 2,3 and 7... and of course these are the most expensive of the lot! But 3 and 7 are two of the most affordable letterpress I have found, EVER!

But my mission wears on.

Oh, and I want to give honorable mentions to Rexcraft.com and CarlsonCraft.com for their great selection and affordable prices. And who knows, I change my mind so often that we might get our invites from one of those.

Were you surprised by the cost of an invitation suite? What have been your tricks for saving money on invites?

Peanut Butter Bumper Date

A few years ago, I introduced my cereal-crazed fiance to one of my favorite cereals, Peanut Butter Bumpers.

source: www.mothersnatural.com

Peanut Butter Bumpers are organic puffs of corn, flavored with natural peanut butter and are simply delicious!

The Mister was instantly hooked and we were going through 2 boxes a week between breakfast and late-night snacks.

When I was working, my office was two blocks from our apartment and I had to go in at 9:00 am where the Mister had to commute about 20 minutes and had to be in at 8:00 am.

His morning routine is to shower, get ready and then have breakfast. My routine is to make coffee, have breakfast and then shower and get ready.

Lucky for us, we would both be ready for breakfast at the same time. So we started our "Peanut Butter Bumper Dates". Cheesy, I know. But I loved getting our breakfast ready while the Mister was finishing getting ready for work. I would tell him it was time for our "Peanut Butter Bumper date" and he would rush to finish up so we could eat together.

It was a really great way to start a morning!

Today I was grocery shopping and there was a sale on the Bumpers (they are kind of pricey and now that I am jobless, they aren't a priority). I called the Mister to say "What cereal do you want? Bumper are on sale."

He replies, "Get Bumpers! We can have a Peanut Butter Bumper date."

And then my heart sunk: we have stopped our dates.

Our current situation doesn't allow for us to do these little cheesy moments. Living with the Mister's sister and brother-in-law has really taken a toll on our romance efforts. We find that we hide our gestures since his sister and brother-in-law are not that kind of couple (we are heavy on the romance and they are... well, not).

The more I think about it, there have been a bunch of little gestures that have faded away with time. I won't get into because some of it will make you nauseous, but they were little things that meant so much to us, would ease pain, make us laugh or offer us comfort.

I miss those little gestures.

I hope we can bring them back once we are on our own again.

Think back to the beginning of your relationship. Are there little things/gestures you use to do but don't do any more?

Let's all make a promise here and now: promise to bring back one of those gestures this week, even if it is just for one night. Okay?!

Mine is a Peanut Butter Bumper date. What is yours?

Check and Almost Check

Our save-the-dates are out the door!

Well, our save-the-dates for our families are out at least. I am still working on our friends but they will understand!

But wow, what a relief to have one more thing done. Especially, since we have started the invitation hunt. I felt more and more behind the closer we got to deciding on our invites.

It feels so official now. I can't wait to get the last batch out and to really focus on finding our invites for a steal. Hey, what can I say, I'm a bride on a budget!

What has been your biggest wedding project accomplishment so far?

Bridal Suite-ness

About a month ago, I wanted to book our wedding suite for the night of our reception.

There are a few upscale hotels near our reception venue. But there were a few factors our final hotel would have to meet before I could book.

The ideal suite would have a separate bedroom from the living area, a hot tub (for us to relax in and have a glass of champagne before we go to bed) and a view. The Mister and I are suckers for a good view!

First was the Brookwood Inn. It was very recently remodeled and plays host to one of the most luxurious steakhouses in the city.

The hotel futures a grand lobby...

... and has "5 elegant suites", as the website says.

My favorite are the Hickory and the Manhattan...

(Sorry for the pic quality. source: http://www.brookwoodinn.com/)

The suites are beautiful but they are lacking in a view and are kind of expensive for one night.

The option is the Woodcliff Lodge and Spa.

We had stayed here once before and we loved it! The hotel is nestled atop of a hill. The hill is actually the highest point of elevation in the tri-county area, allowing for the most amazing view of our city that is 20-miles away.

The landscape is well well manicured, the golf course is one of the best in the area and the restaurant is elegant without being pretentious and has an uninterrupted view of the city.

The hotel also has two-floor suites! You enter into the living and kitchen space...

... and up the spiral staircase is the hot tub room with a VIEW!

Top 4 pics - source: www.woodclifflodge.com

And since I am a Nervous-Nelly, I had to go visit the suite before I booked to to make sure I wasn't dreaming!

Oh, did I mention our suite will be pulling double duty as our wedding suite AND as the location of our bridal brunch? That explains the need for a very separate living space. This way we don't need to rush and it's kind of like having breakfast in bed, which is one of our FAVORITE things.

The candy coating on the Woodcliff suite is the price! It was under budget and I am thrilled! And it will be a surprise for the Mister... I can't wait! (wow, three exclamation points in one paragraph)

I was actually so happy with the price, I booked a room for after the rehearsal dinner for me, my sister and mom. This way we can relax for the night, then get ready for the wedding the next day.

How did you decide on a wedding night suite? Did you have requirements? Anyone else do a bridal suite brunch?

Sign, Sealed but Not Yet Delivered

I promise, I am trying SO hard to get these Save-the-Dates out.

They are complete and they are beautiful! I have them in their beautiful neutral colored, linen envelops from the Envelop Mall...

source: http://www.envelopmall.com/

Now comes the tedious task of addressing these old girls.

I have decided since these are just Save-the-Dates and aren't actual invitations, it is okay to use the clear labels to save time and force me to start a family address book.

I am using Avery's 18660 clear address labels. What I love about Avery is you can download a template and you can input the contact information right on the template.

So should you use less than the 30 labels on the sheet, the next time you want to print labels, you can input on the template where the last label was left off. Thus, no waste!

Now, back to inputting!

What tasks are you finding most tedious?